771008 - Conversation A - Vrndavana

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

771008R1-VRNDAVAN - October 08, 1977 - 28:13 Minutes

(Arrival of Jayatirtha and Harikesa)

Prabhupāda: What is the news of South Africa?

Jayatīrtha: There were fifteen thousand at our Janmāṣṭamī festival, and we opened our new temple. And all of the community leaders there are very anxious to see our Society increase. Seven Indian devotees have been made.

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Jayatīrtha: And the community leaders there are giving us plots of land in different Indian areas and money for building temples. It's a very, very good report from South Africa.

Prabhupāda: That's all. So maintain. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (kīrtana in room) How are you feeling this morning, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Not bad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not bad. It may be that your pulse is like that because you're resting. After a long sleep the pulse can be weak and slow. (break)

Prabhupāda: But I think I cannot sit down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think we can wash you while you're laying down.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would that be all right?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If we sit you up and put pillows behind you, will you be able?

Prabhupāda: Try.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hmm okay.

Upendra: First we'll wash as much while he's laying down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Upendra says first we'll wash as much of you as we can while you're laying down. Then after, we'll try to sit you up. Okay? Jaya. We'll stop the chanting for a little while?

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Go on with the chanting. (kīrtana continues) (break) You don't want to drink anything today?

Prabhupāda: Let me drink hari-nāma amiya-vilāsa.

Hari-śauri: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. That's the sweetest nectar. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . . vilāsa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we'll begin to bathe you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: Nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhi . . . (SB 10.1.4). This is bhavauṣadhi, hari-kīrtana.

Jayādvaita: Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt.

Prabhupāda: Ah. And caraṇāmṛta, paṭha—diet. Diet and medicine. Let me depend on these.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very pure. Pure diet, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Transcendental. Not feeling any discomfort?

Prabhupāda: Same discomfort or same comfort. No change.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you're bathed a little bit now.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? You bathed the head? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Your face was bathed and your eyes. Tilaka is put on fresh. You still feel that hair?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You still feel that hair? (laughter)

Prabhupāda: This time, what they supply?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What they supplied? You mean prasādam? There was some . . . of course, today is the day after Ekādaśī, so they had some cereal made with gūr and some guava fruit salad, with guavas and bananas. That was all this morning. Lunch is usually substantial, very good. It's the best prasādam that we have had in many years in India here. This boy, Ayodhyā-pati, oh he's doing very nicely. He cooks usually . . . do you want to know what he cooks for lunch? He cooks a ālu sabjī with dahī sauce, and he makes bindī, very nicely spiced, and ḍāl, roṭīs, rice, apple chutney, and dahī, raita. Every day.

Prabhupāda: Who assists him?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: About three other devotees. There's no hired people. They're all fired and gone. Only devotees are cooking, and very tasteful, and everybody, about a hundred and twenty devotees sit together and take prasādam. And the guests from the guesthouse, they also take there. Everyone takes together. No restaurant.

Prabhupāda: Guesthouse, they come.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Guesthouse people come and eat also in the prasādam hall.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I wanted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You wanted that. They give a chit. They pay at the guesthouse. They pay at the guesthouse, and then they take prasādam in the hall with the devotees, same as everybody. I think they pay three rupees, and they get as much as they want to eat. We are an āśrama. We're not trying to run a big business here. Isn't that right, Śrīla Prabhupāda? I haven't heard anybody complain. And all the devotees take together. Very nice atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Best system. So Jayatīrtha, you liked?

Jayatīrtha: The prasādam?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: Yes, I liked it actually. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Everyone liked?

Devotee: I liked it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everybody likes the lunch?

Devotees: Yes, oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are the perfect father, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You provide everything for us—place to live, food to eat, everything. And you've trained us up with spiritual knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Chant. All together. (Tamāla Kṛṣṇa starts, all chant together) (break)

Hari-śauri: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa is here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What meeting going on?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, very interesting meeting. Paramānanda, Vāmanadeva, Tripurāri Mahārāja, Ādi-keśa Mahārāja and myself discussing our Gītā-nagarī community and talking about varṇāśrama. Very, very . . . we were trying to reflect on all of the teachings in your books and what we had read about Kṛṣṇa's life and Nanda Mahārāja's community.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How Nanda Mahārāja . . . how the vaiśya community lives, how the different varṇas and āśramas function together, and what their responsibilities are to each other. We're trying to set up our Gītā-nagarī community based upon the teachings which you've given in your books. It is very enlivening and stimulating meeting. Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja will be coming tomorrow with his brother. And he has designed the very ideal plan for all of the varṇas and āśramas to live together.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (chuckles) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. We're going on on your teachings, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You're always in the center of our life.

Prabhupāda: No, let us make some community.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Show the world how to live ideally, go back to Godhead. Make your own . . . raise your own food, make your own clothes, make your own buildings, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. They are working so hard—they don't have nice home, they don't have nice clothing, they don't have nice food, and they have no love for Kṛṣṇa. We have to show how to do everything very nicely. And you've given . . . we just have to understand what you've given us, Prabhupāda, your teachings.

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have nothing new to find out. We have no research to make. You've given us everything. We only have to carry out exactly how you've trained us up and taught us.

Prabhupāda: Do it nicely. Hmm. So you can go on with your business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. We'll continue chanting here. (kīrtana) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. If you want me I'm right nearby, Śrīla Prabhupāda, just in another room. (break) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (speaking with great difficulty) It is . . . if I want to survive, of course I'll have to take something. It is not possible to survive without taking any food. But my survival means so many, one after another, as you say . . . it requires . . . therefore I have decided to die peacefully in . . . hmm. (pause)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Shall we chant kīrtana? (Haṁsadūta leads kīrtana) (break) Those postal receipts. When they become due, then I'll give them to each of the individual members? Okay. Don't worry. I'll see that each of them is satisfied. They won't feel sorry in any way. You've provided for everyone, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) They want you to survive.

Prabhupāda: If I want to die, this is the way of peaceful death.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Go on chanting. (kīrtana) (end)